Zachary woke up at 3am which he has been doing ever since he got his last ear infection. Normally I nurse him at this point and he goes back to sleep until 7:00 or so. He was unable to eat after midnight, so he would not go back to sleep. Finally, at 5am I got up to take a shower and get us all ready. We left at around 6am so he could catch a quick nap on the way to the hospital. We got there at 7am only to find out that his 8am surgery had actually been bumped to 8:30, so we were not expected until 7:30. Somehow we didn’t get that message, so we had an extra long wait at the hospital. Zach did really well, though, to the point that the nurses asked if he’s normally that good. They also gave him a book called “Franklin Goes to the Hospital” which I tried to read to him but he was uninterested.

Finally around 8am we went to the pre-op room. They gave him a liquid sedative which quickly took effect. He got very drowsy and groggy and could barely hold his head up, but it made it much easier on all of us since he was so out of it when they took him away that he didn’t fuss or cry. Before that, though, we spoke to Dr. Seymour, signed some consent forms and got the anesthesia rundown from the anesthesiologists. When the nurse took him away, we were led to the waiting room and told that we would probably be called in about twenty minutes. Darren was hungry, so we went downstairs to have breakfast while we waited (the breakfast was quite gross).

When we got back to the waiting room, Dr. Seymour showed up to let us know that everything had gone well. He told us that he removed a lot of thick fluid from both ears, so we should definitely be seeing an improvement. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t give the fluid to us (yes, Darren did ask, but Dr. Seymour said he sells it because it makes a great roofing polymer – hah). He then told us that a nurse would come get us in about 5 minutes to go to the recovery room.

About 20 minutes passed and the nurse finally showed up. We went back there and Zach was still asleep and being watched by a nurse. She said that most children would have woken up by then, but I’m guessing he was exhausted from barely sleeping that night. She also said that it’s much nicer when they do stay asleep until the parents get back there, though, so that when they wake up they see their parents and not some stranger. This did work in our favor – the nurse woke him up by tickling his feet and he didn’t cry. He fussed a bit until I held him and then he settled down. He was definitely groggy and out of it, but not in any obvious pain or discomfort. We sat with him for a while, gave him some water and a few licks of a popsicle, and then the anesthesiologist gave us the okay to go home.

He was quite cranky in the car on the way home so we thought we’d have a rough day ahead of us. We got home around 10:00 and fed him breakfast. After that, he was his usual happy self. The rest of the day was very normal for him and so far he seems great. We do have to put 4 drops in each ear twice a day for 4-5 days, which isn’t fun for anyone, but he took them pretty well tonight. The test will be me giving them to him alone in the morning – not looking forward to that!

We have a follow-up appointment and hearing test on February 18, so stay tuned for Part 3! Until then, here are a few photos of Zach’s first trip to the hospital (since being born, of course).